I have always enjoyed Canada Geese at a distance.
Riding in the back seat of our car and seeing them fly over in formation as if they were on a secret military mission was a common childhood experience. Until …
Several years ago, my folks gave my wife and I annual passes to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. Oh boy! This would never be anything that we would do for ourselves …. the perfect Christmas gift! We did not get around to trying them out until the spring when we packed a picnic lunch, my guitar and her banjo to destinate at the picnic area and lagoon next to the French Broad River below The House. No sooner had we unpacked and begun to spread when we found ourselves competing with God’s given for our tuna fish sandwiches. And then we noticed the ground and how these green-glue pellets were sticking to the bottom of our shoes. To my wife, I said, “People hunt these things,don’t they? Why are there so many? Where did they all come from?”
My next sordid and close-up encounter was springtime in the parking lot of the Winston-Salem Costco. I parked next to one of the gravel-endowed curb islands. Upon getting out of my car, I was immediately attacked by a fearsome female who had built her nest in the mulch. What the …. ?
I decided then and there to rub them off my life list because I did not want this species contaminating my real wins.
The City of Winston-Salem is building a new dam on its Salem Lake to replace the original one built in 1919. The lake is now at half-pool and more than half the lake is dry, except for the small tributaries that feed it. On our mountain bike rides around the lake, my wife and I had noticed all of the ducks and geese that had found this seemingly ideal habitat which prompted me to do a sunrise visit and be in position before the birds arrived.
A thin misty fog enshrouded the lake bed, and as the sun rose, one-half of the tributary finger was bathed in warm light and the other half in cool shadow. And then the unmistakenly honk-a-lonk began to grown in volume.
Indeed, a beautiful sight and subliminal symphony was given to me by someone that morning.
Canada Geese are now back on my life list.